AUG 2015
MUSEUM OF OXFORD
GEORGINA STOLERMAN
MoOFs Launch!
THE JAM FACTORY PRUE DREW
CROMWELL HAD HIS PROBLEMS! INA WINDLE
MAYOR’S CHAIR PETER SIMPSON
MUSEUM OF OXFORD NEWSLETTER
Welcome Hello and welcome to the August/September edition of our newsletter, I hope you’ve all been able to enjoy what little of the summer there has been so far. As you might have noticed, we’ve done a bit of re-branding and now instead of being the ‘Volunteer’s Newsletter’, we are now the ‘Museum of Oxford Newsletter’! Along with news about our friends, this time we are delving into the world of jam and the Civil War; Lesley Court is in the hot seat, that is: the Mayor’s chair and we have some favours to ask of you.
Interested in Contributing to MoOFs or the newsletter? Email djuler@oxford.gov.uk to find out more!
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Museum of Oxford Friends Launch After nine months of hard work, the Museum of Oxford Friends (MoOFs) Launch on Friday June 12th was a resounding success. The occasion was celebrated with drinks and speeches in the Old Museum. Judith Price as MoOFs Chair, gave a warm welcome and explained the thinking behind the creation of MoOFs and the progress that has been achieved up until the Launch and plans for the future. The final speeches from Peter McQuitty and Bob Price, discussed the history of the Museum. Throughout the event there was a sense of palpable optimism and good cheer. The evening ended with a raffle which resulted in plenty of happy winners! The Museum of Oxford Friends support the development of the Museum of Oxford as a vibrant centre, sharing historical and cultural interests and ensuring local people are involved.
If you wish to
become a MoOF then please pick up a flyer where you will find an application form from Explore Oxford or t h e Mu s e u m s h o p, s e n d u s a n e m a i l at museumofoxfordfriends@gmail.com or call: 07955 188279 Georgina Stolerman
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The Jam Factory Prue Drew
In 1867 Frank Cooper (1844–1927) inherited the business of his father Francis Thomas Cooper (1811–1862) in the High Street, Oxford. Cooper Senior was originally a hatter and hosier as well as an agent for Ridgeway's Tea, and around 1845 he converted his shop at No 46 on the High Street into a grocery, later leasing Nos 83 and 84 opposite his original property and running No 84 as a grocery shop and his family home. Cooper Junior on his inheritance expanded the grocery shop into number 83 next door, and in 1874 Frank Cooper's wife Sarah-Jane (1848–1932), then aged 24, made 76 pounds (34 kg) of marmalade to her own recipe. The marmalade proved popular, and until 1903 was all made at Nos 83-84 High Street. Frank Cooper then moved production to a new purpose-built factory at 27 Park End Street, retaining the High Street premises as a shop until 1919, when he sold it to Twinings. The Park End Street factory, four-storey with an area of 1,630 square feet (151 m2) was designed by Oxford architect Herbert Quinton and built by long-established local builder Thomas Henry Kingerlee. This new factory could accommodate 60 workers. Their dining room and restrooms, plus two storage rooms, were on the top floor. On the second floor, women cut up fruit in a long, well-lit room with large curve-headed windows. Bottling and packing (or ‘tying-down’ as it was known) took place on the floor below. Boiling the fruit took place beyond the yard on the ground floor, in a room equipped with copper vats heated through steam jackets by a boiler in the adjacent boiler-house with its large chimney.
Frank Cooper was a vigorous promoter of his
products, emphasising the homemade purity and health-giving properties of his marmalade, as well as its upper class appeal. The factory was strategically situated close to the stations and goods yards of both the London and North Western Railway at Rewley Road and the Great Western Railway in Botley Road, making the delivery of
fruit and sugar, distribution of
marmalade
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and jam and business travel for company personnel, suppliers and trade customers as efficient as possible. Success of the business led to expansion of the factory four times between 1912 and 1925, using land between the 1903 building and the corner of Hollybush Row. Its elaborate façade with swags of oranges carved in the stonework above the entrance and between the first and second floor central windows gave an indication of Frank Cooper’s confidence as a businessman.
Interesting facts about Coopers
•Marmalade fuelled the breakfast tables of the British Empire – the high sugar content meant it survived the journey from Dundee to Darjeeling with characteristic stoicism – and left its sticky legacy in many former colonies, remaining popular in Australia and New Zealand in particular;
•Captain Scott took some Frank Cooper's Vintage Oxford Marmalade to the Antarctic, evidence from a can later found buried in the ice near where he and his team died - to be seen today in the Museum of Oxford; •Sir Edmund Hillary carried a jar with him on his Everest expedition; •The Queen is known to be a consumer of a daily spoonful or two of Frank's finest; •A jar of the marmalade can be seen down the rabbit hole in the original illustrated Alice in Wonderland;
•In Arthur Ransome’s children's book Missie Lee, Miss Lee, the leader of the Chinese pirates, had been educated at Cambridge University but learned to enjoy Cooper's Oxford Marmalade. Miss Lee’s very words: 'We always eat Oxford marmalade at Cambridge. Better scholars, better professors at Cambridge but better marmalade at Oxford.' After the Second World War, Frank Cooper bought the site of the ice rink and Majestic Cinema west of the railway stations on the north side of Botley Road. A new factory was built on the site and the company moved production there from Park End Street. Brown and Poulson Ltd. bought Frank Cooper's in 1964 and moved production away from Oxford in 1967, but retained the "Oxford" name for the marmalade. Since 2001, 84 High Street has been marked by an Oxfordshire blue plaque commemorating Sarah Cooper 's inception of Ox ford Marmalade. The former factory at 27 Park End Street (now part of Frideswide Square) survives, named appropriately ‘The Jam Factory’ and is now a listed building.
Discoveringbritain.org/wal ks/oxford-industrial-heritage recommended to Friends and Volunteers: a walk that takes in Oxford’s industrial heritage in the Botley area jam- and marmalade-making, breweries, shoe-making, chimneys, depositories, and gas, railway and electricity stations
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In the Mayor’s chair - Lesley Court Peter Simpson
When Lesley was crawling across an open field, somewhere in England, disguised as a bush she didn’t see a vital signal to proceed and along with her team was captured by the enemy. Lesley was born a Staffordshire lass in Walsall. At 10 she and her family moved to Chelmsford in Essex and three years after that to Swindon. This meant a lot of changing schools in her early life but Lesley got all her 'A' levels at her Swindon grammar school. She decided against a university education and took instead an intensive secretarial course at the College of Commerce in Bristol. For two years Lesley was a Medical Secretary at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, which led to her later enjoyment of the medical environment. By 1969 she had saved enough money to spend some time on one of her passions which is travelling. She and a friend took a minivan and camping equipment to Europe, working and touring in Austria, Italy and Switzerland - which included camping in the snow in Salzburg because there was “no room at the inn” - i.e. the hotel where they were working. It was then a three year spell in London working as the secretary to the editor of Encyclopaedia Britannica before, in 1973, coming to the city Lesley has grown to love and called her home ever since – Oxford. At first she carried on working in the medical field but then changed the next main area of her working life when she joined the Probation Service working in Oxford for twelve years for the Chief Probation Officer. An eye opening experience for her in the University of Life. After this it was back to publishing when Lesley joined Blackwell Publishing for six years, becoming administrator both there and also for the University of Oxford in different areas of medical research – Neuroscience for four years and then the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit – working for the University until her retirement.
Lesley is a person who has always enjoyed being extremely busy and for nineteen years while doing all those jobs was also an active member of the Te r r i t o r i a l Army. The TA, now known as the Army Reserve, is an active duty volunteer reserve force which is an integrated part of the British Army. At first Lesley was a Medical Assistant, then Personnel Officer , and finally in charge of Oxford Detachment of the Wessex Field Hospital. She saw service in summer camps in Belgium and Germany, and in Cyprus during the troubles there in the 70’s. It was very hands on and as well as all the medical training Lesley even had the opportunity once to drive a 4 ton truck, undertook weapons training and at one time ripped her uniform on barbed wire, resulting in capture when disguised as a bush on an ‘escape and evasion’ exercise. Because of her membership of the TA Lesley was also able to spend a month in the Military Hospital in Hong Kong, which she loved. Lesley enjoys Germany and speaking the German language, and one of her life’s highlights was being in Berlin in 1989 when she witnessed re-unification of Germany and the infamous Berlin Wall being knocked down by the citizens there. With full time jobs and the Territorial Army that would be more than enough for most people but then Lesley enrolled in the Open University and for her last years in full employment she studied social !5
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science and languages, including two summer
impractical she began working in the museum itself
schools in former East Germany, and when retired
helping with the visitors. When the Museum of
completed a degree in Language Studies.
Oxford Friends (MoOFs) was launched Lesley was
Retirement sees Lesley as busy as ever and for many
again one of the first to join. years she has been the Secretary of Oxtalk – talking
Lesley never stops and is an active member of a
news for the blind. She is also a reader and trainer
number of rambling groups, does house sitting in
for them visiting new referrals – people losing their
the Peak District, always travels abroad at least once
sight or who have become completely blind –
a year, enjoys theatre visits and socialising all over
teaching them how to use the equipment.
the country, and is a founder member of the Friends
When the Oxford Civic Society made an appeal to its members to help keep open the Museum of Oxford
of South Park. Busy scenes of a crowded life. Proverb - “Better to wear out than rust”!
Lesley was one of the first to join. Initially preparing the volunteers’ rotas but when this proved to be
Calling all MoOFs Judith Price
All members of the newly formed Museum of Oxford Friends (MoOFs) are invited to a circular walk around central Oxford celebrating the early years of William Morris (Viscount Nuffield) the motor manufacturer and benefactor.
This photo, dated 1895, shows William Richard Morris at the age of 18. Six years after the photo was taken, he would build a motorised cycle and begin the legend of Morris.
Brenda and Peter will be giving a guided tour of locations which will include Parker’s Cycle Agents the only place where he worked for wages, the car showrooms where he went bust, his taxi service, his bus service, where he gave driving lessons and much more.
The tour will start in the Town Hall’s Explore Oxford rooms and will end in the Old Museum for a chat about William Morris and also the present plans for the regeneration of the original museum. This leisurely walk will take about an hour. The tours will be held on Thursday 24th September at 2:00 pm and Saturday 3rd October at 10:30 am. We hope to see you there.
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recruited from jails or the typical haunts of low lives, or commandeered by a liege lord, but were principled men, fighting for a cause and their officers were educated and politicised. Since there was no central command, they took control of organising themselves; they elected representatives to protect their interests, similar to Union Reps. From time to time between skirmishes with Royalist forces, they held debates about tactics and future hopes - there are records about one such meeting held here, in Oxford. At this time there was no censorship in operation, which meant they could publicise their aims, describing the society they wanted to see develop, and since printing was cheap and easy then a great deal of their material was widely disseminated. Cromwell had justified his rebellion on the need for more power for members of parliament. For the dissident groups it was more a question of Power to the People. In October and November in 1647 a body of dissatisfied soldiers from all ranks gathered together in St Mary’s Church in Putney for a series of debates. One group well represented there, was the Levellers - their name is indicative of their tenet. Full records were kept of their discussions and the event has passed down in history as The Putney Debates.
There are a number of local connections to this episode of the Civil War. Several dissident soldiers sought sanctuary in Burford Church, three of whom were shot against the church wall – today there is a plaque there to commemorate them. One of the soldiers had carved his name on the edge of the font, still decipherable as Anthony Sedley. Every year on the Saturday nearest the 17th May (the day of the execution) a remembrance event takes place in the church garden to recall the Levellers and their ideals of justice and democracy.
Ina’s question Somewhere in Gloucester Green there is supposedly another memorial plaque for two men, Private Biggs and Private Piggen, who were shot in Gloucester Green for leading a revolt in Oxford, but I haven’t been able to find it. Can any fellow volunteer tell me where it is? Also, can any of you help me with a question about the Society of Friends? In my research I read a great deal about other groups at the time, with similar beliefs and aspirations for society - the Ranters, the Diggers and the Quakers (originally calling themselves The Children of Light). The Quakers were very radical in their beliefs and on the restoration of the monarchy refused to swear allegiance to the crown. So my question to our readers is: “are Quakers today still republican in their beliefs?” Any information welcome!
Dissident Groups in Cromwell’s Army
Cromwell felt unable to negotiate with the army dissenters when they presented him with their paper ‘Agreement of the People’ and ordered the ‘loyal‘ faction of his soldiers to eradicate these trouble makers, ultimately regaining Cromwell his control.
Cromwell Had His Problem!
The men who fought with Cromwell were a special kind of fighter. They had not been
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At the Museum…
MUSEUM OF OXFORD
40 years, 40 objects Opens 28 September 2015, Museum of Oxford ‘40 years, 40 objects’ is an exhibition of forty objects that have been selected by the local community to tell the story of their city. This is part of the 40th anniversary celebrations that have been taking place, during which, the Museum of Oxford has been working with local people and community groups to gather objects related to their memories and experiences of Oxford over the last four decades. This exhibition will also feature an exciting spotlight loan from a national museum and digital stories created especially for the exhibition.
Elsewhere…
What’s on?
Oxford Shakespeare Festival Monday 22nd June – 15th August, 7pm, £15, Oxford Castle
Oxford Castle Unlocked is playing host to a brand new festival for the City in summer 2015 as the Oxford Shakespeare Festival is launched, with 8 weeks of scintillating theatre performances in the attraction’s historic Castleyard. From Monday 22nd June until Saturday 15th August, four productions will grace the outdoor stage, with the stunning castle as its backdrop. The line-up is as follows: As You Like It, Romeo & juliet, Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors. See www.oxfordshakespearefestival.com for more info.
From Palace to Studio: Chinese Women Artists, 1900 to the present Tuesday 10th March - Monday 28th September, Free, Ashmolean Museum At the beginning of the 20th century, the palace retainers of China’s Empress Dowager Cixi included a ‘ghost painter’. This accomplished female artist was tasked with producing paintings in the Empress’s name, and only rarely signed her own works. This exhibition begins with one of her paintings and goes on to document the emergence through the 20th century of female painters as independent artists with their own incomes, ateliers and international reputations.
Great British Drawings Thursday 26th March – Monday 31st August, 10am – 5pm, £8/ Conc. £3.50, Ashmolean Museum
See the very best of British drawings and watercolours exhibited together for the first time. From famous watercolours by Gainsborough and Turner, to the outstanding draughtsmanship of Rossetti, Millais and Holman Hunt, to 20th-century works by David Hockney, Gwen John and Walter Sickert! With works spanning over three centuries, the exhibition includes the very best British drawings from the Ashmolean's world renowned collection.
Contributors: Georgina Stolerman, Prue Drew, Peter Simpson, Judith Price, Ina Windle, Felicity Hammond Editor: Felicity Hammond Art Editor: Yi Wu
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We Need
Now!
You! We need your help! Write now!
One of our long-standing contributors, Prue Drew, author of our historical articles, is going to be stepping away from the writing desk for a while and we need some keen and interested volunteers to help fill the space which will be left. You can write about anything which takes your fancy as long as it is connected to the museum, the town hall or the city of Oxford in some way. Please don’t be shy, it can be as long or short as you wish and you can remain anonymous if you would feel more comfortable with that. If you are interested, please contact David, at djuler@oxford.gov.uk !9